Points of Articulation

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The ToY Awards started back in 1998, when I was just doing reviews on my own. Yes, there were other end-of-year awards around at the time, but most of them focussed primarily on "child safe" toys, handing out praise for educational content, safety in manufacturing, and encouraging non-violent play patterns.

How dull.

I wanted to honor the toys that older toy fans actually liked. ToyFare magazine had a similar year-ender, but when I started, they were nothing but whores to Star Wars. Then they went out of their way to ignore McFarlane. Plus, they had a tendency to include toys to which they as a news outlet had access, but normal collectors did not; things that they had received as samples, but weren't due on the shelf for a few months.

Thus, the ToYs were born. The ToYs are the voice of the real fan community, covering what's really the best of the best. What started out as one "best of" award has grown and expanded to include a few more categories, but still: they're all the best of the best. We've even inspired a few imitators, but when you want the real toy of the year, you head for the Toy of the Year.

• ToY

  Optimus Prime

  2024 seemed destined to be Optimus Prime's year, with three different versions of the character all jostling each other in an effort to take the ToY crown: Studio Series 86 Optimus, with his perfect anime looks and clever accessories; Missing Link Optimus, a dead-on-accurate re-creation of the 1984 toy, but with modern-day articulation; and Legacy United "G1 Universe" Optimus, which did the same thing but at a retail pricepoint. They're all excellently made and all popular enough to sell out quickly. After much debate, it was decided Missing Link got the final win, for not only his own quality. but for also launching an entire new style of Transformer, much like Masterpiece Optimus Prime did 20 years before him. But honestly, this could have gone down as a three-way tie, and if you prefer to think one of the other two won instead, we wouldn't blame you.

  Other nominees included No Way Home Doc Ock • Marvel Legends Angel • NECA's Jack Kirby • Concept Art Sunstreaker • Concept Art Megatron • Figura Obscura Frankenstein • Ghost Rider and his bike • Spin Master's Aloy • Mythic Legions Gold Knight Legion Builder • Masterverse Mer-Man • the Feral Predator from Prey, upping the standard for future Pred releases • Street Fighter Dhalsim and his swappable limbs • TMNT Tatsu for simply existing, plus all the references • DC Multiverse "Action Comics" Superman • Retro Collection She-Hulk • Mythic Legions Aracagorr • GI Joe Classifed Road Pig • Premium DNA's Earthworm Jim • Transformers Magmatron • NECA Vincent Price

• Best Line

  Transformers Blokees

  Oh look, more chances for Optimus Prime to win acclaim. Chinese toy company Blokee has broken into the international market with their Transformers-branded line. Blokees are 4.5" inch blind-boxed model kits of various characters (in this case, Transformers) that allow you to build articulated figures. The kits have a standardized body and the pieces just snap together, meaning you can rebuild them if you like, or even mix pieces around to assemble your own creations. They're something new and fun, and have even shown up on Walmart shelves.

  Other nominees included Premium DNA's Earthworm Jim, thanks to its low, low, low prices • the highly unexpected Playstation Shapes Collection from Spin Master • Turtles of Grayskull • as always, Mythic Legions • Jada's Street Fighter • Mattel's Masterverse • Gylos Brynelords • Operation Monster Force • Lego Dungeons & Dragons • McFarlane's DC Super Powers • NECA's Ben Cooper Costume Kids

• Best Accessory

  Captain America's broken shield

  The Secret Wars figures from Hasbro are (with a couple exceptions) re-releases of figures you may already have, so if you're buying them, you're buying them for what's new. Black Suited Spider-Man? A squinty head. Wolverine? A great smirking head. Iron Man? Rollerskates. But the best piece of them all is Captain America's shield, shattered into chunks. The only thing that would be better would be if you could actually fit the pieces together tight enough to stay in place until you hit them against something. The Captain America is fine, but to anyone who already had previous similar versions, the shield is what's selling the set.

  Other nominees included GI Joe Classified Junkyard • any of the other GI Joe Classifed animals from this year • Broadway's trenchcoat • the Heartstone included with Elkhorn • Ghost Rider's motorcycle and its flame effects • speaking of flame effects, the Phoenix Force • TMNT Archie Krang • the variety of looks included with Vincent Price • Dhalsim's bendy limbs • Quick Kick's Frozen Fudgee bar • The Beyonder's nascent Battleworld • Scrap-Iron's 's Anti-Armor Drone

• Best Packaging

  Street Sharks

  Yes, putting the figures in cages is basically the same thing the vintage line did, but this time the pieces are connected, and can be assmbled into a full cage even after the box is opened and thrown away. We love to see some extra playability in the packaging.

  Other nominees included Chester Cheetah • Super7's Super Kaiju • Spin Master's Shapes Collection • Jada's Street Fighter • Boss Fight Studio's Court of the Dead • Marvel Legends Strange Tales • the trading-card styling Death's Head got • the clear Feral "Bear Blood" Predator box • Operation Monster Force with sturdy construction and cool art • Four Horsemen's Figura Obscura book covers • Mattel making sure there's entertainment for all ages with the Wicked boxes

• Best Build-A-Figure

  Metal-Boto

  A Build-A-Figure whose parts are only available with a series of slowly released store-exclusives sounds like a pain to collect, but the Target Turtles of Grayskull figures were plentiful and even regularly went on sale. The whole line is a lot more fun than it has any right to be, and this mashup of Metalhead and Roboto is just silly enough to work. Plus, it has lots of extra weapons so you can really make the figure your own.

• Worst of the Year

  TMNT Sewer Lab

  It was kind of disingenuous for us to pretend anything else even had the chance to beat this one: as soon as it happened, it had the category locked up. NECA offered a big playset for their cartoon-styled TMNT figures, like they'd done in the past. And while the product is generally fine, things fell apart when it came to delivery. NECA double-shipped some orders, leading to fans who had ordered one set getting two. A mistake, sure, but an understandable one; the problem was NECA's reaction. At first, they reached out to customers, asking them to ship the set back (at NECA's expense, and with a bonus store credit), which is the fair thing to do. Unfortunately, they then almost immediately sent out a second, threatening message, saying "return the product or else," saying that anyone who didn't return the product would be charged for it. But per the FTC, if a company sends you an item by mistake, you are under no obligation to pay for it - it's a way to prevent scams. So NECA threatening to take action against anyone who didn't send back the extra sets is literally a federal crime. And the ultimate "tripping over your own dick" move was that the same lazy attention to detail that caused the problem in the first place meant NECA sent the message to everyone who bought the Sewer Lab, not just the people who received doubles, meaning some customers who hadn't even received one item yet were being threatened with the price of a second. It was an absolutely embarrassing situation entirely the fault of NECA as a company and their inability to communicate with fans. If it had stopped after the "we will pay for you to return it" message, it would be a funny story and forgotten, but because someone with no idea what they were doing got mad, the entire company got turned into clowns. Maybe it's good they don't have any interaction with the public anymore.

  Other nominees included Retro Collection Scarlett • Super7's Toho Super Kaiju • Marvel Legends Spider-Shot • Funko's shutdown of Itch.io • Hasbro artificially inflating its prices • McFarlane Toys' DC Platinum chase figures • Playmates' downsized Technodrome

• Best Exclusive

  "Once a Man" Cobra Commander

  Cobra Commander getting turned into a snake is one of the most memorable and horrifying moments of '80s animation, and yet that scene has never had a toy before. Hasbro delivered, using a few pieces from their Retro Collection Cobra Commander, plus a whole bunch of new molds to show his scaly skin. Plus, they included a fully serpentine version of him as an accessory. This one lost points for Hasbro playing coy about when their SDCC exclusives would be available online, but won them back by returning to the website several times.

  The "Best Exclusive" category is open to every exclusive (convention, store, online, anything) released this year.

  Other top finishers included:
  • GI Joe Dragonfly (HasLab)
  • Marvel Legends Kang with Time Chair (Hasbro Pulse)
  • Blue First Appearance Spawn (McFarlane/Walmart)
  • Stump Wrestling TMNT (NECA/Target)
  • WWE Superstars Muhammad Ali (Mattel/Walmart)
  • Duel's End Darth Vader (Hasbro/Target)
  

Now that you know what's won this year, you can head on over to see our past winners. The Class of 2024 joined some illustrious ranks, and they're all archived here.